Patents by Inventor Fred Zuill

Fred Zuill has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9343112
    Abstract: Methods and systems to provide supplemental content to a user who is viewing video or other content. The user's device (through which he will access the video) then provides an identifier of that video to a server or other computing facility. Here, the video identifier is used to identify supplemental content that corresponds to the user's video. The supplemental content is then provided to the user device for the user's consumption. The supplemental content may be structured in such a way that pieces of the supplemental content are accessible at particular points in the video. The piece(s) of the supplemental content available at a particular point in the video will be related to one or more objects that are present at this point. This allows a user to access one or more pieces of supplemental content in a context-specific manner, at a point in the video where the piece(s) of supplemental content are relevant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150189373
    Abstract: Methods and systems to improve the efficiency of a content delivery system. A local distribution node is introduced to the network, between the content provider and the end user device (i.e., the leaf node). The local distribution node is responsible for servicing a localized subset of the leaf nodes that would otherwise be serviced by a conventional server of the content delivery system. Requests for content are received at the local distribution node from leaf nodes, and content is received at the local distribution node for transmission to the leaf node(s). Content may be cached at the local distribution node to allow faster service of subsequent requests for this content. Caching may also be used to make the channel surfing process more efficient. If demand is high, a leaf node may be promoted to serve as an additional local distribution node. Leaf nodes may also share content among themselves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150188758
    Abstract: Methods and systems to improve the efficiency of a content delivery system. A local distribution node is introduced to the network, between the content provider and the end user device (i.e., the leaf node). The local distribution node is responsible for servicing a localized subset of the leaf nodes that would otherwise be serviced by a conventional server of the content delivery system. Requests for content are received at the local distribution node from leaf nodes, and content is received at the local distribution node for transmission to the leaf node(s). Content may be cached at the local distribution node to allow faster service of subsequent requests for this content. Caching may also be used to make the channel surfing process more efficient. If demand is high, a leaf node may be promoted to serve as an additional local distribution node. Leaf nodes may also share content among themselves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150188757
    Abstract: Methods and systems to indicate events of interest to a user. IN an embodiment, an event processor queries each of a plurality of event data sources, then receives event data from one or more event data source. The event processor then identifies an event to be indicated to a user device based on the event data. The identified event to the user through a user device. The event processor may receive, via the user device, feedback regarding the identified event. This feedback may be used to train future event identification. The event processor may be implemented at a computing device that is remote from the user, such as a server. Alternatively, the event processor may be implemented internal to the user device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150188921
    Abstract: Methods and systems to improve the efficiency of a content delivery system. A local distribution node is introduced to the network, between the content provider and the end user device (i.e., the leaf node). The local distribution node is responsible for servicing a localized subset of the leaf nodes that would otherwise be serviced by a conventional server of the content delivery system. Requests for content are received at the local distribution node from leaf nodes, and content is received at the local distribution node for transmission to the leaf node(s). Content may be cached at the local distribution node to allow faster service of subsequent requests for this content. Caching may also be used to make the channel surfing process more efficient. If demand is high, a leaf node may be promoted to serve as an additional local distribution node. Leaf nodes may also share content among themselves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150188842
    Abstract: Methods and systems to improve the efficiency of a content delivery system. A local distribution node is introduced to the network, between the content provider and the end user device (i.e., the leaf node). The local distribution node is responsible for servicing a localized subset of the leaf nodes that would otherwise be serviced by a conventional server of the content delivery system. Requests for content are received at the local distribution node from leaf nodes, and content is received at the local distribution node for transmission to the leaf node(s). Content may be cached at the local distribution node to allow faster service of subsequent requests for this content. Caching may also be used to make the channel surfing process more efficient. If demand is high, a leaf node may be promoted to serve as an additional local distribution node. Leaf nodes may also share content among themselves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150188756
    Abstract: Methods and systems to indicate events of interest to a user. IN an embodiment, an event processor queries each of a plurality of event data sources, then receives event data from one or more event data source. The event processor then identifies an event to be indicated to a user device based on the event data. The identified event to the user through a user device. The event processor may receive, via the user device, feedback regarding the identified event. This feedback may be used to train future event identification. The event processor may be implemented at a computing device that is remote from the user, such as a server. Alternatively, the event processor may be implemented internal to the user device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: DivX, LLC
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20150189017
    Abstract: Methods and systems to improve the efficiency of a content delivery system. A local distribution node is introduced to the network, between the content provider and the end user device (i.e., the leaf node). The local distribution node is responsible for servicing a localized subset of the leaf nodes that would otherwise be serviced by a conventional server of the content delivery system. Requests for content are received at the local distribution node from leaf nodes, and content is received at the local distribution node for transmission to the leaf node(s). Content may be cached at the local distribution node to allow faster service of subsequent requests for this content. Caching may also be used to make the channel surfing process more efficient. If demand is high, a leaf node may be promoted to serve as an additional local distribution node. Leaf nodes may also share content among themselves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Sonic IP, Inc.
    Inventors: William Amidei, Francis Chan, Eric Grab, Michael Kiefer, Aaron McDaniel, John Mickus, Ronald Mombourquette, Nikolai Popov, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20130055293
    Abstract: A multimedia framework capable of facilitating communication between an application and one or more supported players in accordance with embodiments of the invention is disclosed. One embodiment includes a multimedia framework configured to communicate with at least one application and at least one installed player; where the multimedia framework is configured to receive messages from the at least one application; where the multimedia framework is configured to parse the messages and identify a player and an instruction contained within the message; where the multimedia framework is configured to determine whether the identified player is an installed player; where the multimedia framework is configured to identify at least one player command from a set of common player commands based upon the instruction; where the multimedia framework is configured to provide the at least one player command to the identified installed player.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2011
    Publication date: February 28, 2013
    Applicant: DIVX, LLC
    Inventors: Mayur Srinivasan, Fred Zuill, Frederick F. Hermanson
  • Patent number: 8275733
    Abstract: A system for creating an album is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an image input configured to receive related images, an image memory coupled to image input, an image processor coupled to image memory, and an album output coupled to image processor. The image processor is configured to use game play with users to assign metadata labels to the related images and assign album layout rules based upon the story schema and metadata labels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: James L McCullough, Jennifer Marie McCord Brister, Eamonn O'Brien-Strain, Fred Zuill
  • Publication number: 20100235312
    Abstract: A system for creating an album is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an image input configured to receive related images, an image memory coupled to image input, an image processor coupled to image memory, and an album output coupled to image processor. The image processor is configured to use game play with users to assign metadata labels to the related images and assign album layout rules based upon the story schema and metadata labels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Inventors: James L McCullough, Jennifer Marie McCord Brister, Eamonn O'Brien-Strain, Fred Zuill